Pages

Monday, June 27, 2016

Pieces by Toni Aleo is Now Available & Reviewed

From New York Times
& USA Today Bestselling Author of the Assassins, Bellevue Bullies, and
Taking Risks Series comes a new, magical, radiant & powerful love story of
the supernatural.

In New York City, an underground society of supernatural beings exists, hidden
among everyday humans. They don’t know of our activities or any of our secrets.

The districts of the Works are made up of vampires, wolves, shifters, witches,
and I’m in the fifth and arguably most important district, the Patchwork. My
father is the leader of our group, and he oversees all of the other factions.

As his only daughter, that makes me the princess of it all. Cool, right?
Actually…no.
Sure, I live in a mansion and money isn’t an object, but that doesn’t matter
because I can’t leave. I have a guard who follows me around 24/7. My father and
three older brothers treat me like I’m a fragile piece of glass, never allowed
to take an independent step or make any decisions on my own.
It’s beyond frustrating—especially since my father essentially runs my life.
He says what I do, when I do it, how I do it, and all that jazz. He tests his
formulas and new techniques on me. I’m a walking science experiment.
I hate it.
I hate my life here.

But then he comes along: Killian.
He’s just some vampire…or so I thought.

But you’ll have to read my story to find out what I mean. To know my secrets.
Until then, though, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Rebekah von Stein.
And I’m a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein.

Angela – ☆☆☆☆☆
Where to start? First, I want to thank the author for taking a break from
writing contemporary romances (Go Assassins!) to try her hand at writing
paranormal romance, because I really, really enjoyed Pieces. Second, I want to thank her for including the oft forgotten
shapeshifter – the kind that can shift into any being, including other people
as long as they make contact with the person whose form they’re assuming. While
I can think of a few movies and shows that include this type of shapeshifter, I
can only think of one book with such a character and that guy was actually the
hobgoblin, not a true shapeshifter. So that alone made Pieces a unique read for me. But Aleo didn't stop there, because
she made sure that Rebekah was such a fascinating character all on her own,
that the only thing that made me put my Kindle down was the dire need to be a
responsible adult.

As the blurb states, Rebekah is a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein. I’ll admit
upfront, I am not well-versed on the Frankenstein legend, so except for knowing
that the creature we call Frankenstein is actually Frankenstein’s monster,
while it is the doctor who is Frankenstein, I cannot comment as to how much of
Rebekah’s family’s history coincides with the legend and how much of it is Aleo’s
creation. Truth be told, from an entertainment perspective, I don’t really care
because it’s fascinating either way. However, it does mean that I can’t properly
give the author her due for the parts that are her creation, because while I
suspect that the twists I enjoyed the most are hers, I just don’t know. That
said, the Works itself is the world that Aleo has created and I fell in love
with it. Set in New York City, each of the five species – the Patchwork,
shifters, werewolves, vampires, and witches – seems to inhabit a separate borough.
But the different factions are separated by more than just geographical
boundaries as the rules that govern them dictate that the races aren’t allowed
to mix in matters of procreation. But we learn that it has less to do with
purification of the races, and far more to do with the potential of the hybrid
offspring. As the leader of the Works, Rebekah’s father goes to great lengths
to insure the rules are followed and that his people, the Patchwork, remain the
most powerful among the supernatural beings. Yet despite all his efforts, his
daughter remains mortal (<= not really a spoiler because it’s revealed in
the first couple of pages, which you can download in a sample). The crux of
this installment is Rebekah trying to convince her father that she is a responsible
adult who needs some freedom, all while engaging in behaviors that contradict
her claim because she’s being suffocated in the name of protection. Her
situation is made worse by the discovery of a conspiracy to kidnap her as
leverage to force her father to make the leader of the wolves immortal. Just as
her defenses should be on high alert, the new employee at the bar manages to
make it past her defenses with no effort – she trusts him completely when
everyone around her is telling her to trust no one. And when we finally find
out why, it made for an awesome twist.

One thing I feel I should “warn” readers about is that while Rebekah might not
be fully human (by our standards), she's like most 20 year olds, and that translates
into a good dose of new adult angst – not something I encounter very often in
paranormal romances. For me, this just helped to emphasize that despite her
father's efforts, Rebekah really is a human girl, and that helped me to connect
with her character. Despite the dangers she faces, the trappings of who she is in
their society, the restrictions on what she can and cannot do, and her personal
insecurities, she is ultimately just a girl in love with a boy. Is she
rebellious? Absolutely. Does she put herself in harm's way? Oh, yes she does.
But three years of being told what to do, not being allowed to leave the
family's property, and not being told WHY, would grate on most anyone's nerves
and lead them to be a bit reckless, too. Fortunately for Rebekah, she seems to
possess good instincts, and actually listens to them. Because of the new adult
feel to the book, parts of the storyline are kind of predictable. I don’t mean
the predictable where you know exactly how the story is going to play out, but
rather the type of predictable where you figure something out before Rebekah does
simply because you’re not the 20 year-old whose world has been tipped on its
axis. It doesn’t occur often, but it did cause me to want to throttle Rebekah
and tell her to grow up, even though that wasn’t fair considering her
situation. And it didn’t decrease my enjoyment any. Unfortunately for this
reader, Pieces’ ending came far too
quickly, and while the ending is not the kind of cliffhanger that left me
screaming in frustration, it did leaving me dying for book two. Thankfully, Aleo
is a pretty productive writer, so I'm really hoping that the monsters of the Works
are already pounding on her muse's door.

My name is Toni Aleo and I’m a total dork.

I am a wife, mother of two and a bulldog, and also a hopeless romantic.

I am the biggest Shea Weber fan ever, and can be found during hockey season
with my nose pressed against the Bridgestone Arena’s glass, watching my
Nashville Predators play!

I have a slight Disney and Harry Potter obsession, I love things that sparkle,
I love the color pink, I might have been a Disney Princess in a past life…
probably Belle.
… and did I mention I love hockey?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Get our review newsletter delivered to your inbox.

Love Young Adult Books?

The Wicked Reads: YA Edition blog has launched. The WR-YA blog will contain the same YA posts that appear on Wicked Reads, but it's safe to let the Young Adults in your life visit because there will be no adult content.